John Boehnerhttp://www.pfaw.org/
Thu, 29 Jan 2015 11:19:22 -0500Thu, 29 Jan 2015 11:24:37 -0500National School Choice Week: PR For Privatizers?http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/national-school-choice-week-pr-privatizers-0
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<p>On Wednesday morning, a roomful of school children were herded into a congressional meeting room and required to sit through an hour and a half worth of speeches by conservative Members of Congress, including House Speaker John Boehner, Sens. Ted Cruz and Tim Scott, Chief Deputy Whip Rep. Patrick McHenry, Education & Workforce Committee Chair John Kline of Minnesota, and a handful of others. Rep. Luke Messer of Indiana was the emcee.</p>
<p>The Capitol Hill event was in honor of <a href="http://schoolchoiceweek.com/about">National School Choice Week</a>, whose organizers describe it as a nonpolitical, nonpartisan &ldquo;independent public awareness campaign&rdquo; promoting the idea that every child deserves access to an excellent education. Who would disagree?</p>
<p>In other words, it&rsquo;s a PR campaign, one that wraps itself in the moral mantle of children. But the bright yellow scarves it wraps around its participants are meant to distract attention from the fact that sponsors of this week&rsquo;s thousands of events include many anti-public education, anti-union, anti-government ideologues, including the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, the Heritage Foundation, the Alliance for Prosperity and others. The President of National School Choice Week, <a href="http://www.andrewrcamp.com/#!bio/c1scb">Andrew Campanella</a>, used to work at the Alliance for School Choice, whose board is <a href="http://allianceforschoolchoice.org/about-us/leadership/">chaired</a> by deep-pocketed right-wing activist Betsy DeVos and is funded by a <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Alliance_for_School_Choice">who&rsquo;s who of right-wing foundations</a>.</p>
<p>As we noted during last year&rsquo;s NSCW:</p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;">Education policy is a vast, complicated, and hotly contested arena. Terms like &ldquo;education reform&rdquo; and &ldquo;school choice&rdquo; sound good, but they are so broad as to be almost meaningless. They can be applied to genuine efforts to strengthen teaching and educational opportunity as well as cynical schemes to destroy public employee unions and dismantle public education altogether.</p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;">In particular, &ldquo;school choice&rdquo; encompasses a huge array of education policies, from public charter and magnet schools to taxpayer-funded for-profit cyberschools and homeschooling.&nbsp; Even a seemingly specific term like &ldquo;charter schools&rdquo; cloaks a more complex reality that ranges from innovation labs co-located in public schools to for-profit chain operations. &nbsp;</p>
<p>Indeed, this year, Richard Kahlenberg and Halley Potter published &ldquo;A Smarter Charter: Finding What works for Charter Schools and Public Education.&rdquo; The book documents that the original vision for charter schools &ndash; teachers empowered to be creative in diverse schools that could identify ways to strengthen public education &ndash; has been turned on its head. Rather than a teacher-empowering and collaborative paradigm, charter schools are often noted for tightly controlled teachers in highly segregated schools dominated by an ideology of competition with public schools.&nbsp;</p>
<p>There are more collaborative models, just as there are charter schools with strong academic track records as well as those that lag behind the public schools that choice advocates consistently disparage. Important distinctions get lost under the big, vague, banner of school choice. And that&rsquo;s intentional.</p>
<p>NSCW is about painting in broad strokes and drawing no distinctions, for example, between public magnet schools and for-profit corporations cashing in on the &ldquo;reform&rdquo; movement. No distinction is made between giving students choice among their district&rsquo;s public schools and diverting education dollars into religious academies and online homeschooling via <a href="https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/school-choice-week-don-t-buy-the-lie">vouchers</a> and other schemes.&nbsp; These do not have the same impact on public schools, or the same levels of public accountability, but in the interest of keeping things simple, and winning public support for across-the-board expansion of these programs, they&rsquo;re all &ldquo;choice.&rdquo;</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.pfaw.org/content/problem-school-choice-week-what-s-behind-bright-yellow-banner-0">As we wrote last year:</a></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;">The problem with this &ldquo;collective messaging&rdquo; approach is that it hides the anti-public-education agenda of some &ldquo;reformers.&rdquo; Celebrating &ldquo;school choice&rdquo; across the board lends credibility to organizations pushing for destructive policies that are not at all popular with the American public. In spite of decades of right-wing-funded attacks on public education, for example, Americans oppose privatization plans&nbsp;like vouchers that transfer public education funds to private schools.</p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;">Self-proclaimed reformers often dismiss concerns about privatization as a &ldquo;red herring.&rdquo; But you can&rsquo;t embrace the Milton Friedman Foundation as a partner and then pretend that privatization is only an imaginary threat dreamed up by teachers unions.&nbsp; Friedman has an&nbsp;<a href="http://www.edchoice.org/The-Friedmans/The-Friedmans-on-School-Choice" target="_blank">explicit</a>&nbsp;goal of getting rid of public schools altogether; they see programs like vouchers for poor kids as a tactical stepping stone toward that ultimate goal.</p>
<p>Other supporters of National School Choice Week have included companies that want to tap into the huge flow of public dollars spent every year on education. K12, a member of the &ldquo;choice&rdquo;-promoting American Legislative Exchange Council and a company the&nbsp;<em>New York Times</em>&nbsp;has&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/education/online-schools-score-better-on-wall-street-than-in-classrooms.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">described</a>&nbsp;as &ldquo;the biggest player in the online-school business,&rdquo; <a href="http://insiders.morningstar.com/trading/executive-compensation.action?t=LRN">paid its president more than $5.5. million last year</a>; two other executives each made more than $4 million. A November 2014 <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-11-14/k12-backed-by-milken-suffers-low-scores-as-states-resist">investigation by Bloomberg</a> focused on the company&rsquo;s efforts to turn around &ldquo;subpar test scores&rdquo; and declining enrollments.</p>
<p>National School Choice Week promoters say it is nonpolitical and has no legislative agenda, but that&rsquo;s hard to take seriously given the agendas of its backers. At this week&rsquo;s event on Capitol Hill, the only Democratic Member of Congress to join the Republican parade was Illinois&rsquo; Dan Lipinski, who declined to endorse Barack Obama&rsquo;s re-election in 2012. (Former Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford also spoke.)</p>
<p>Members of Congress at Wednesday&rsquo;s event talked about pushing legislation this year to expand &ldquo;school choice&rdquo; programs, meaning that battles over vouchers, charter schools, and other education issues will be on the agenda this year, including February&rsquo;s Senate markup of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. And, <a href="https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/school-choice-week-don-t-buy-the-lie">according to</a> Americans United for Separation of Church and State, &ldquo;There are currently private school voucher and tuition tax credit programs in 23 states and at least 10 states are looking to create new or expanding existing school voucher programs this year.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Obviously, not everyone who participates in National School Choice Week activities is an anti-public-education ideologue. People from across the political spectrum are eager to strengthen schools and give students an opportunity for a great education. That includes public school teachers, administrators, and school board members &ndash; people who are collectively&nbsp;<a href="http://www.edreform.com/2012/09/what-it-is/" target="_blank">smeared</a>&nbsp;as &ldquo;the blob&rdquo; by some &ldquo;reformers.&rdquo; People who are seeking to strengthen public education and make schools better for all children should think twice about making common cause with organizations that see public education as something to be dismantled and corporations that see students as <a href="http://www.pfaw.org/rww-in-focus/predatory-privatization-exploiting-financial-hardship-enriching-1-percent-undermining-d">the means to a bigger bottom line.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://blog.pfaw.org/content/national-school-choice-week-pr-privatizers"><em>This post originally appeared on People For the American Way's blog.</em></a></p>
Peter MontgomeryAlliance for School Choice C4Heritage FoundationJohn BoehnerJohn KlineLuke MesserNational School Choice WeekPatrick McHenryPrivatization of educationPublic Educationschool vouchersTed CruzTim ScottFriedman FoundationFighting the RightReligious Liberty49650Thu, 29 Jan 2015 12:19:22 -0400John Boehner'The Hammer' Tom DeLay Thinks John Boehner Is Too Meanhttp://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/hammer-tom-delay-thinks-john-boehner-too-mean
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<p>Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, known as &ldquo;The Hammer&rdquo; for his hardball political tactics, assailed John Boehner in an interview yesterday for <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/john-boehners-revenge-house-speaker-punishing-gop-defectors/story?id=28062670">punishing</a> several congressmen who voted against his re-election as House speaker.</p>
<p>While speaking with &ldquo;<a href="http://www.frc.org/wwlivewithtonyperkins/al-lisa-robertson-tom-delay">Washington Watch</a>&rdquo; host and Family Research Council head Tony Perkins, DeLay praised the Republicans who challenged Boehner&rsquo;s third term as speaker while lamenting that members of the GOP conference &ldquo;are at each other&rsquo;s throat.&rdquo;</p>
<p>He urged listeners to &ldquo;tell your own congressman that you are watching what is going on and you do not support retaliating against members that vote their conscience&rdquo; on the leadership vote, and advised the defectors to &ldquo;fight back&rdquo; against Boehner&rsquo;s schemes.</p>
<p>DeLay criticized Boehner for having &ldquo;misinterpreted the election that just happened,&rdquo; adding: &ldquo;He thinks the election happened so they can govern, my interpretation of the election was the people said to stop Obama, stand on principle and fight for the Constitution.&rdquo;</p>
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<p>DeLay also told Perkins that Jesus Christ helped him through his legal ordeal over campaign finance and money laundering charges, insisting that he faced government persecution because of his political views.&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;">Democrats, DeLay said, want to &ldquo;bankrupt you, destroy your family, put you in a grave and dance on that grave.&rdquo;&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;">Now DeLay hopes to bring about &ldquo;a constitutional revolution in this country.&rdquo;</span></p>
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Brian TashmanC4John BoehnerTom DeLayTony Perkins Family Research CouncilFighting the Right49443Fri, 09 Jan 2015 13:15:07 -0400John BoehnerTed Yoho: Boehner's Leadership Reminiscent Of A 'Communist Country'http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/ted-yoho-boehners-leadership-reminiscent-communist-country
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<p>Rep. Ted Yoho, the Florida Republican who helped lead yesterday&rsquo;s unsuccessful revolt against John Boehner&rsquo;s re-election as House speaker, warned after the vote that attempts by the House GOP leadership to <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/boehner-allies-out-for-revenge-114007.html">punish defectors</a> by removing them from committee posts are akin to communist oppression.</p>
<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve grown up in a country that honors free speech,&rdquo; Yoho <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/rep-yoho-some-republicans-bailed-on-anti-boehner-vote/">told</a> WorldNetDaily&rsquo;s Radio America. &ldquo;If I can&rsquo;t speak what&rsquo;s on my mind, if I can&rsquo;t do what the people of my district sent me up here [to do] and have that voice of dissension without fear of retribution, I&rsquo;m not in a free country. That would be something you would expect in China, Cuba or any other communist country.&rdquo;</p>
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<p>Yoho also suggested that several GOP House members told him that they would join him in opposing Boehner but ended up voting for the speaker&rsquo;s re-election.</p>
<p>He told host Greg Corombos that &ldquo;there are members that said &lsquo;if you hit twenty votes, we&rsquo;ll jump on and vote with you, but if you don&rsquo;t have that many we&rsquo;re not going to,&rsquo; and when we hit that, you can&rsquo;t find them.&rdquo;</p>
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Brian TashmanC4John BoehnerTed YohoFighting the Right49416Wed, 07 Jan 2015 13:00:31 -0400John BoehnerRight Wing Bonus Tracks - 8/5/14http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/right-wing-bonus-tracks-8514
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<ul>
<li>
Yet another Republican congressman <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/mr-jones-shalalalalalalala">calls for impeaching President Obama</a>.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
Steve Deace <a href="http://barbwire.com/2014/08/05/yet-republicans-fight-grassroot-conservatives-harder-fight-democrats/">mocks John Boehner</a>: &ldquo;I guess all the Tea Party leaders I&rsquo;ve had on my nationally syndicated radio show calling for President Barack Obama&rsquo;s impeachment the past 16 months were tools of &lsquo;a scam started by Democrats,&rsquo; and they didn&rsquo;t even know it.&rdquo;&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
Religious Right activists who sought to undo Houston&rsquo;s anti-discrimination ordinance <a href="http://blog.chron.com/kuffsworld/2014/08/hero-repeal-effort-falls-short/">failed to deliver enough valid signatures</a> to put a repeal measure on the ballot.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
We are <em>shocked </em>to see Ted Nugent <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/08/05/nras-ted-nugent-uses-racial-slur-for-japanese-w/200322">making more racial slurs</a>.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
We are also just <em>shocked </em>that Katie Pavlich has been <a href="http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/aug/05/katie-pavlich/townhall-editor-claims-us-agency-empowered-itself-/">making completely bogus claims</a> about the CFPB.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
Todd Starnes <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ToddStarnesFNC/posts/690064037735098">BURNS President Obama</a>: &ldquo;President Obama wrote in an op-ed for McClatchy News Service that we have a moral obligation to support Africa's progress. What about supporting America's progress, Mr. President?&rdquo;</li>
</ul>
Brian TashmanC4John BoehnerLeftoversSteve DeaceTed NugentTexas ValuesTodd StarnesWalter JonesFighting the Right47845Tue, 05 Aug 2014 17:25:03 -0400John BoehnerParanoia-Rama: The Impeachment Scam, Obama Recruits Child Soldiers, And OFA Gives Away The Gamehttp://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/paranoia-rama-impeachment-scam-obama-recruits-child-soldiers-and-ofa-gives-away-game
<p><em>RWW&rsquo;s <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/topics/paranoia-rama">Paranoia-Rama</a> takes a look at five of the week&rsquo;s most absurd conspiracy theories from the Right.</em></p>
<p>This week, we learn that Republican calls for impeachment are actually Democrats&rsquo; fault, see a major admission about Obama&rsquo;s presidency, and explore the connections between environmental protection, the border crisis, Obamaphones, and the president&rsquo;s private army.</p>
<p><strong>5. Republican Calls For Impeachment Are A Democratic Plot.</strong></p>
<p>We&rsquo;ve always suspected that people like <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/bryan-fischer">Bryan Fischer</a> and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/matt-barber">Matt Barber</a> are liberal plants sent to discredit and destroy the conservative movement from within, but we never knew how far the plot extended.</p>
<p>House Speaker John Boehner <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/07/29/boehner-impeachment-talk-all-a-scam-by-democrats/">busted the scheme wide open</a> this week when he declared that the idea of impeaching President Obama is &ldquo;all a scam started by the Democrats at the White House&rdquo; and that &ldquo;this whole talk about impeachment is coming from the president's own staff and coming from Democrats on Capitol Hill&rdquo; in an effort to make Republicans look extreme.</p>
<p>Of course, since the very beginning of Obama&rsquo;s presidency, the GOP&rsquo;s <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/gops-base-clamors-impeach-obama">base has been clamoring to impeach</a> him and remove him from office (although nobody can ever quite agree for what supposed crime).</p>
<p>Those calling for impeachment have even i<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/gops-base-clamors-impeach-obama">ncluded a number of Republican members of Congress</a>, including Rep. Steve Stockman, who <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/steve-stockman-wants-every-congressman-read-impeachment-book"> distributed a book in favor of impeachment to every office on Capitol Hill </a> .</p>
<p>And even after Boehner declared the whole thing to be a scam, prominent right-wing talkers including Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/08/01/how-impeachment-tied-right-wing-media-in-knots/200289">continued to call for impeachment.</a></p>
<p>So now, we suppose, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/gops-base-clamors-impeach-obama">multiple members of Congress</a>,<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/gops-base-clamors-impeach-obama">Fox News personalities</a>, and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/gops-base-clamors-impeach-obama">major Religious Right organizations</a> are all pawns of the Democratic impeachment agenda.</p>
<p><strong>4. Team Obama Admits To Alinskyite Conspiracy.</strong></p>
<p>WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah has found more solid proof that President Obama has launched an Alinskyite plot to destroy America: an Organizing For Action birthday card that calls the president the &ldquo;Organizer in Chief.&rdquo; <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2014/07/once-a-community-organizer-always/">Let Farah explain</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&ldquo;Organizer in Chief&rdquo;?</p>
<p>Isn&rsquo;t that one of the derisive titles pinned on Obama by his harshest critics?</p>
<p>Isn&rsquo;t that what Rush Limbaugh calls him?</p>
<p>Isn&rsquo;t that what I call him?</p>
<p>Doesn&rsquo;t the origin of that term come from Obama&rsquo;s devotion to <a href="http://superstore.wnd.com/books/Rules-For-Radicals-Paperback">Saul Alinsky&rsquo;s &ldquo;Rules for Radicals,&rdquo;</a> the bible of radical, left-wing community organizing?</p>
<p>In fact, doesn&rsquo;t the new hit movie &ldquo;America&rdquo; by Dinesh D&rsquo;Souza focus quite a bit of attention on Obama&rsquo;s Alinskyite community organizing roots and how he has carried this brand of activism and incitement right into the White House?</p>
<p>Yes to all of the above.</p>
<p>So why would Obama&rsquo;s very own political action committee be embracing the cheeky slur against the &ldquo;commander in chief&rdquo;?</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s an admission. It&rsquo;s immunization. It&rsquo;s a contemptuous non-repudiation of the truth. It&rsquo;s classic Alinskyism on display.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>3. EPA Recruting Central American Kids To Love Big Government.</strong></p>
<p>Infowars put two and two together this week, noting that the Environmental Protection Agency has solicited a contractor for &ldquo;Hispanic Media and Public Outreach Support&rdquo; and &ldquo;English to Spanish Translation Services&rdquo; around the same time that thousands of Central American children are fleeing to the United States&hellip;an <a href="http://www.infowars.com/epa-targets-spanish-only-speakers-in-environmentalist-ad-campaign/">obvious plot to hook them early on Big Government</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Environmental Protection Agency is targeting Spanish-only speakers in an upcoming public relations campaign, raising concerns that bureaucrats are already encouraging illegal aliens from Central America &ndash; potential future voters &ndash; to support big government.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>2. Migrant Kids Will Be Used For Medical Experiments&hellip;.</strong></p>
<p>Rep. Michele Bachmann brought her trademark analysis to the crisis of children fleeing violence in Central America who have come in large numbers to the southwestern American border. In an appearance on &ldquo;WallBuilders Live&rdquo; this week, Bachmann suggested that the Central American children will be put into the foster care system and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/michele-bachmann-claims-president-obama-wants-use-unaccompanied-children-medical-experiments"> used for medical experimentation </a> :</p>
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<p><strong>1. </strong> <strong>&hellip;Or Lured With Obamaphones To Become Child Soldiers.</strong></p>
<p>What could be worse than using migrant children as unwilling guinea pigs for medical experiments? How about luring them with free phones to become child soldiers in President Obama&rsquo;s private army that will impose tyranny on America?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/william-gheen-and-alex-jones-obama-using-obamaphones-recruit-central-american-kids-become-ch">William Gheen and Alex Jones have the scoop </a> :</p>
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Miranda BlueAlex JonesC4ImmigrationJohn BoehnerJoseph Farah Michele BachmannObama impeachmentParanoia-RamaSteve StockmanWilliam GheenWorldNetDaily Fighting the Right47797Fri, 01 Aug 2014 13:47:09 -0400John BoehnerEnd Times Preacher Seeks Support From Top Republicanshttp://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/end-times-preacher-seeks-support-top-republicans
<p>Jonathan Cahn <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/cahn-gay-marriage-and-obama-s-re-election-are-signs-end-america">recently started</a> <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/end-times-leader-claims-be-working-members-congress-reverse-gods-judgment-america"> boasting that members of Congress </a> have been reading his <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bachmann-blunt-and-cantor-listed-special-guests-religious-right-inauguration-event">End Times book</a>, "The Harbinger," about how God used the September 11th attacks and the 2008 economic crash to punish America for its support of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/end-times-rabbi-there-great-shaking-coming">abortion rights</a> and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/real-lesson-911-ban-same-sex-marriage">gay marriage</a>.</p>
<p>WorldNetDaily, which has heavily promoted Cahn&rsquo;s book and a film based on his work, is out with a <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2014/07/top-lawmakers-investigating-harbinger/">story</a> today on Republican figures including Speaker John Boehner, Michele Bachmann and Mike Huckabee are cozying up to the messianic rabbi.</p>
<p align="center"><img alt="" src="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/sites/default/files/BoehnerHarbinger.jpg" style="width: 175px; height: 362px;" /></p>
<blockquote>
Rabbi Jonathan Cahn&rsquo;s runaway bestseller &ldquo;The Harbinger&rdquo; has been gaining the attention of America&rsquo;s top lawmakers.<br />
<br />
At a recent event on Capitol Hill commemorating George Washington&rsquo;s prayer meeting after his inauguration, Cahn spoke to a hall filled with government officials, members of Congress including Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., justices and other influential citizens.<br />
<br />
&hellip;<br />
<br />
Speaking about reading &ldquo;Harbinger,&rdquo; Gov. Mike Huckabee said, &ldquo;If you have not read this remarkable book, it&rsquo;s one of the most soul-stirring, and stunning, spell-binding books I think I have ever, ever, read.&rdquo;<br />
<br />
Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, has also received a copy of &ldquo;The Harbinger.&rdquo;<br />
<br />
&hellip;<br />
<br />
&ldquo;Before its destruction as a nation, ancient Israel received nine harbingers, prophetic omens of warning,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The same nine harbingers are now manifesting in America with immediate ramifications for end-time prophecy.&rdquo;</blockquote>
Brian TashmanC4End TimesJohn BoehnerJonathan CahnMichele BachmannMike Huckabee WorldNetDaily Fighting the Right47557Mon, 14 Jul 2014 11:05:44 -0400John BoehnerTony Perkins Warns Obama Turned America Into Sodom, Wonders If He Threatened John Boehnerhttp://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/tony-perkins-warns-obama-turned-america-sodom-wonders-if-he-threatened-john-boehner
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="351" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_rww/Tony_Perkins.jpg?1399573616" />
<p>The Family Research Council is <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/family-research-council-promotes-story-describing-obama-part-spirit-antichrist">not happy about the decision by the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv to fly the LGBT pride flag</a> this month.</p>
<p>Yesterday on his radio program, &ldquo;<a href="http://www.frc.org/wwlivewithtonyperkins/lila-rose-jim-inhofe">Washington Watch</a>,&rdquo; FRC president Tony Perkins denounced the embassy&rsquo;s decision.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The rainbow flag over Israel &mdash; the last time they were flying that over Sodom and Gomorrah it didn&rsquo;t work out so well,&rdquo; Perkins said. &ldquo;This administration is not just ignoring or indifferent to traditional values, it is hostile to them, it is hostile to the very things that made America great.&rdquo;</p>
<p align="center"><iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/154214868&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe></p>
<p>Perkinbs also spoke to a caller who said President Obama is &ldquo;Satan personified&rdquo; and a &ldquo;terrorist&rdquo; who &ldquo;threatened&rdquo; House Speaker John Boehner &ldquo;and his family&rdquo; to keep him in check.</p>
<p>Perkins kept the allegation alive, telling the caller that &ldquo;there could be something to that, I don&rsquo;t know, I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s come to that&rdquo; while noting that &ldquo;this president and his policies&rdquo; have &ldquo;dismantled the country morally and culturally.&rdquo;</p>
<p align="center"><iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/154213594&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe></p>
Brian TashmanAnti-GayC4John BoehnerTony Perkins Family Research CouncilFighting the Right47189Fri, 13 Jun 2014 12:35:57 -0400John BoehnerEric Cantor Pushes GOP To The Edge Of A Cliff, Falls Offhttp://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/eric-cantor-pushes-gop-edge-cliff-falls
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="390" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_rww/Eric_Cantor_A.jpg?1402500704" />
<p>The headline of a New York Times article responding to Eric Cantor&rsquo;s startling primary defeat last night read, &ldquo;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/11/us/politics/cantors-loss-a-bad-omen-for-moderates.html?_r=0">Cantor&rsquo;s Loss a Bad Omen for Moderates</a>.&rdquo; That would be true if there were still moderates in the House Republican Conference to speak of.</p>
<p>But there aren&rsquo;t, and you can thank Eric Cantor for that.</p>
<p>House Republicans are now heavily skewed to the right, including a large wing that refuses to ever collaborate with President Obama or congressional Democrats on anything. Cantor, of course, was one of the chief architects of the GOP&rsquo;s hardline politicking and far-right shift.</p>
<p>Cantor <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/02/eric-cantor-the-sequester-and-the-death-of-the-grand-bargain.html">helped</a> sink bipartisan debt deals, including the 2011 budget &ldquo;grand bargain,&rdquo; and engineered the Republican strategy of manufacturing fiscal crisis after crisis by putting a ransom on must-pass fiscal bills.</p>
<p>As Bill Burton <a href="http://nymag.com/news/politics/eric-cantor-2011-10/">told</a> the New Yorker in 2011, &ldquo;Cantor has had an outsized influence on how poisonously partisan Washington has been these last couple years.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Cantor also was behind the Republican Party&rsquo;s decision following the 2012 election disaster to resist any calls to moderate or begin working, even slightly, with Obama. Instead, the GOP moved to <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/republican-autopsy-report-revisited-5-ways-gop-got-worse-2013">rebrand itself by attempting to change its image</a>, beating back on the (accurate) perception that it had become an extremist, uncompromisingly ideological entity.</p>
<p>Vanity Fair just this month ran a <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2014/06/political-rebranding-eric-cantor-paul-ryan?mbid=social_twitter">piece</a> on Cantor&rsquo;s attempt to seem more moderate, respectable and bipartisan &mdash; even while sticking to his old extreme policies. &ldquo;[I]f people see you for what you really are, that&rsquo;s a failure on your part,&rdquo; Michael Kinsley wrote of Cantor&rsquo;s rebranding attempt. &ldquo;Success is when people see you as what you wish you were.&rdquo;</p>
<p>In March, the New Yorker&rsquo;s Ryan Lizza <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/03/04/130304fa_fact_lizza?currentPage=all">noted</a> that Cantor, &ldquo;the creator of a strategy to oppose and obstruct the Obama agenda&rdquo; who has a &ldquo;reputation as a Tea Party leader,&rdquo; only sought to make &ldquo;short-term adjustments in public relations&rdquo; rather than to temper his increasingly unpopular, and unhinged, fanaticism:</p>
<blockquote>
Since the 2012 elections, the Republicans have been divided between those who believe their policies are the problem and those who believe they just need better marketing&mdash;between those who believe they need to make better pizza and those who think they just need a more attractive box. Cantor, who is known among his colleagues as someone with strategic intelligence and a knack for political positioning, argues that it&rsquo;s the box.</blockquote>
<p>By refusing to temper &mdash; and even encouraging &mdash; the party&rsquo;s sharp far-right swing, Cantor helped to fashion a party that views even the perception of bipartisanship as blasphemy.</p>
<p>Take immigration, for example: While Cantor was actually blocking the House from voting on immigration reform legislation, he still tried to make it seem that the party was open to some reforms, knowing that a majority of Americans and the quickly growing Latino community strongly favored reform legislation. Cantor tried to make the GOP&rsquo;s strict stance against any immigration reform palatable to the public, which eventually allowed his primary challenger to campaign against his supposed support for &ldquo;amnesty.&rdquo;</p>
<p>After encouraging hard opposition to any fiscal deals with Obama unless the president caved to their every demand, Cantor paved the way for a GOP where simply voting to lift the debt limit in order to avoid economic disaster or supporting relief for hurricane victims gives you the much-dishonored title of RINO, &ldquo;Republican In Name Only.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Cantor pushed the party so far to the right that even political posturing that had little to no effect on actual policy was too much for GOP primary voters, and now the politician often seen as the more conservative alternative to Speaker Boehner has become a target of the militant wing he helped create.</p>
Brian TashmanC4David BratElection 2014Eric CantorJohn BoehnerFighting the Right47152Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:30:10 -0400John BoehnerSteve King Warns 'This Place Will Blow Up And There Will Be A Crisis' If House Takes Up Immigration Reformhttp://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/steve-king-warns-place-will-blow-and-there-will-be-crisis-if-house-takes-immigration-reform
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="390" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_images/steve_king_1_a.jpg?1367604480" />
<p>Rep. Steve King is threatening to throw the House of Representatives into a crisis if the GOP leadership decides to bring immigration reform legislation up for a vote. Appearing on "<a href="http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/5/3/6/536617b3a6e8caa8/0430.mp3?c_id=7132340&expiration=1399045801&hwt=f24e2b00422b95946d5fd5d316a97062">The Capitol Hill Show with Tim Constantine</a>" yesterday, the Iowa Republican warned that the &ldquo;rule of law people&rdquo; will do whatever it takes to prevent any vote on immigration.</p>
<p>&ldquo;If it happens, this place will blow up,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If they try to bring some kind of amnesty or a provision that convinces close to a majority of Republicans that it is a sleight of hand amnesty, this place will blow up and there will be a crisis like we have not seen in years in the House of Representatives.&rdquo;</p>
<p>He also criticized Speaker Boehner: &ldquo;He keeps taking a shovel and digging himself into a hole a little bit deeper.&rdquo;</p>
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Brian TashmanC4ImmigrationJohn BoehnerSteve King Fighting the Right46718Fri, 02 May 2014 10:45:38 -0400John BoehnerNational Religious Broadcasters: Boehner, GOP Leaders Agree Government Will Try To Shut Us Downhttp://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/national-religious-broadcasters-boehner-gop-leaders-agree-government-will-try-shut-us-down
<p>In an interview with the American Family Association&rsquo;s Tim Wildmon at the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) convention yesterday, NRB president Jerry Johnson <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElhOyl_OyrA&feature=youtu.be">said</a> that the FCC or the IRS will try to shut down religious television broadcasts as a result of &ldquo;de facto Sharia law&rdquo; and the issue of same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I think there is a de facto Sharia law effect, where we&rsquo;re not under Sharia law but broadcasters feel like they can&rsquo;t talk about Jesus and the Quran, Jesus and Mohammad,&rdquo; Johnson <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElhOyl_OyrA&feature=youtu.be">warned</a>. &ldquo;The government has a new view of marriage, they are pushing it down and increasingly broadcasters and folks in industry&mdash;we&rsquo;re seeing industry censorship.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Later in the interview, Johnson said that he recently told Speaker John Boehner, Republican senators and congressman. and an FCC commissioner that &ldquo;it won&rsquo;t be long&rdquo; until the FCC threatens broadcasters&rsquo; licenses or the IRS scrutinizes their tax status over their stance on same-sex marriage. &ldquo;This threat is coming and I want to say all of these men agreed with me, all of them.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p>We can assure Johnson that every day we observe broadcasters&mdash;both secular and religious&mdash;criticize same-sex marriage and Islam without limits on their speech.&nbsp;</p>
<p align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.pfaw.org//www.youtube.com/embed/ElhOyl_OyrA" width="560"></iframe></p>
Brian TashmanC4Jerry JohnsonJohn BoehnerNational Religious BroadcastersFighting the Right45853Tue, 25 Feb 2014 12:45:21 -0400John BoehnerRep. Huelskamp Mocks Boehner: 'Why Don't We Just Re-Elect Nancy Pelosi As Speaker?'http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rep-huelskamp-mocks-boehner-why-dont-we-just-re-elect-nancy-pelosi-speaker
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="390" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_rww/tim_huelskamp_a.jpg?1379701767" />
<p>Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) is <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/conservatives-rebel-against-boehner-85749.html">continuing</a> <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/08/tim-huelskamp-fundraises-_n_2431440.html">his</a> <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/12/tim-huelskamp-john-boehner_n_2285196.html">crusade</a> against Speaker John Boehner, this time focusing on yesterday&rsquo;s debt ceiling vote. Speaking with <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2014/02/why-dont-we-just-re-elect-nancy-pelosi-as-speaker/">WorldNetDaily</a> yesterday, Huelskamp and fellow Tea Party-aligned congressmen Steve Stockman (R-TX) and Steve King (R-IA) criticized Boehner for approving a clean debt ceiling extension.</p>
<p>The Kansas Republican complained, &ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t we just re-elect Nancy Pelosi as speaker?&rdquo;</p>
<blockquote>
Boehner said his strategy is to let Democrats take the blame for removing the debt ceiling until 2015.<br />
<br />
Responded Huelskamp, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re giving the Democrats exactly what they want, and somehow that&rsquo;s a good thing?&rdquo;<br />
<br />
&ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t we just re-elect Nancy Pelosi as speaker?&rdquo; he wondered, adding, &ldquo;She&rsquo;s getting what she wants.&rdquo;<br />
<br />
Echoing that was Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, who said, &ldquo;We are handing the President and Democrats exactly what they want &ndash; essentially a borrowed, blank check for the rest of the year &ndash; &lsquo;no strings attached.&rsquo;&rdquo;<br />
<br />
&ldquo;Our current level of debt is suicidal. Our Republican leaders need to hear from Republican voters,&rdquo; Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas told WND.</blockquote>
<p>Huelskamp also <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/NewsmaxTv/Tim-Huelskamp-John-Boehner-ineffectual-compromises/2014/02/11/id/552248">told</a> conservative talk show host Steve Malzberg that &ldquo;Nancy Pelosi today is running the floor of the House,&rdquo; calling the debt ceiling extension &ldquo;totally unacceptable.&rdquo; Huelskamp insisted that only bills backed by a majority of Republicans, rather than a majority of all House members, should reach the floor for votes.&nbsp;</p>
<p align="center"><iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/134445740&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true" width="100%"></iframe></p>
Brian TashmanC4John BoehnerTim HuelskampFighting the Right45719Wed, 12 Feb 2014 14:00:56 -0400John BoehnerThe Republican Autopsy Report Revisited: 5 Ways The GOP Got Worse In 2013http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/republican-autopsy-report-revisited-5-ways-gop-got-worse-2013
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="390" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_images/elephant_A.jpg?1330022105" />
<p>With the year coming to a close, we decided to see how the GOP&rsquo;s &ldquo;<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2013/03/18/gop-autopsy-report-goes-bold/">bold</a>&rdquo; and &ldquo;<a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/20/the-republican-autopsy-report/">radical</a>&rdquo; autopsy report [<a href="http://growthopp.gop.com/RNC_Growth_Opportunity_Book_2013.pdf">PDF</a>] was fairing.</p>
<p>After a devastating loss in 2012, Republicans claimed that they didn&rsquo;t need to change themselves or their platform, but only cosmetic attributes such as their rhetoric and presentation. Other right-wing activists&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/30/ted-cruz-and-other-gop-congressmen-lose-by-acting-like-winners.html">simply</a> <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rep-steve-scalise-says-republicans-were-real-winners-2012-election">pretended</a> that Republicans actually won the last election.</p>
<p>But if the actions taken this year by Republican leaders are any clue, it looks like Republicans either ignored or outright rejected even the superficial recommendations made in the GOP&rsquo;s plan to revive the party:</p>
<p><strong>1. </strong> <strong>Ending Aid To Jobless Americans</strong></p>
<p><em>The perception, revealed in polling, that the GOP does not care about people is doing great harm to the Party&hellip;. To people who are flat on their back, unemployed or disabled and in need of help, they do not care if the help comes from the private sector or the government &mdash; they just want help.</em></p>
<p>Republicans in Congress <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/opinion/sunday/no-cheer-for-the-jobless.html?ref=us">rejected</a> an extension of unemployment benefits, which will not only hurt approximately 1.3 million Americans <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/30/business/economy/for-long-term-jobless-a-stubborn-trend.html"> during a period when long-term joblessness is still high</a>, but will also result in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/23/us-unemployment-benefits-expiration-economy">serious harm to economic growth</a>. If Republicans do not waver from their position, up to <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=4060">5 million people</a> could be affected by the cuts. The party also <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/09/19/house-gop-food-stamp-cuts/2839343/">passed enormous cuts</a> to the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3239">food stamp program</a> under the auspices of preventing the <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/08/19/fox-misleadingly-hypes-13-percent-fraud-in-food/195462">tremendously low rate of fraud</a> in an effort to kick <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/07/31/2390101/5-million-kicked-off-food-stamps/">5 million people</a> off of food assistance.</p>
<p>But the GOP continues to give special benefits to millionaires, as earlier this year Republicans&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/15/buffett-rule-included-in-senate-democrats-plan-to-avert-looming-sequester/">once again rebuffed</a> the &ldquo;<a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/tax-reform/news/2012/04/13/11431/what-the-buffett-rule-will-and-wont-do/">Buffet Rule</a>,&rdquo; which would have ensured that millionaires don&rsquo;t end up having a lower tax rate than average Americans.</p>
<p><strong>2. </strong> <strong>Blocking Immigration Reform</strong></p>
<p><em>[W]e must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform&hellip;. On issues like immigration, the RNC needs to carefully craft a tone that takes into consideration the unique perspective of the Hispanic community.</em></p>
<p>Even though a&nbsp;<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2013/11/25/2989131/americans-support-citizenship-public-religion-nov/">majority of Americans</a> and <a href="http://americasvoice.org/research/getting-to-a-majority-more-house-republicans-come-out-for-citizenship/">House members</a> support immigration reform which includes a pathway to citizenship, the House GOP leadership refused this year to call a vote on reform bills. Speaker John Boehner even <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/boehner-no-conference-on-senate-immigration-bill">said</a> that Republicans &ldquo;have no intention of ever going to conference on the Senate bill.&rdquo; But the House did find time to <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2013/06/06/2114081/house-republicans-booed-as-they-vote-to-deport-dreamers/">pass</a> Rep. Steve King&rsquo;s amendment to defund a program that prevents undocumented children being deported.</p>
<p>GOP politicians continue to argue that immigration reform&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bachmann-immigration-reform-means-you-dont-have-future-and-hope">will</a>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rep-broun-immigration-law-ploy-doom-america-keep-democrats-power-perpetuity">literally</a>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rep-broun-immigration-reform-will-destroy-our-country-and-destroy-our-constitution">destroy</a> <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rep-steve-stockman-immigration-reform-will-destroy-gop-and-obama-will-destroy-america">America</a>, and one Republican congressman even used the slur &ldquo;<a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rep-don-young-r-ak-reminisces-about-hiring-wetbacks">wetbacks</a>&rdquo; while describing immigrants. Rep. Louie Gohmert said that Republicans <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/gohmert-stopping-immigration-reform-will-make-hispanics-realize-these-republicans-really-me"> must <em>reject </em>immigration reform </a> to win over Latino voters, while Rep. King dismissed young Latinos as <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/steve-king-undocumented-immigrants-mostly-130-pound-drug-runners-calves-size-cantaloupes"> drug smugglers with cantaloupe-sized calves</a>.</p>
<p><strong>3. </strong> <strong>Rolling Back Reproductive Choice</strong></p>
<p><em>Republicans should develop a more aggressive response to Democrat rhetoric regarding a so-called &ldquo;war on women.&rdquo;</em></p>
<p>Republicans claim it is unfair that people believe they are behind a &ldquo;war on women,&rdquo; but they didn&rsquo;t do themselves any favors by <a href="http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/06/19/this-dangerous-bill-house-passes-20-week-abortion-ban/">approving</a> a sweeping anti-abortion bill. Rep. Trent Franks, the chief sponsor of the legislation, defended his bill by channeling Todd Akin when he <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/06/12/gop-congressman-rate-of-pregnancies-from-rape-is-very-low/">argued</a> that &ldquo;the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low,&rdquo; and then <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/14/1216258/-Rep-Trent-Franks-fundraises-off-his-statement-dismissing-rape-victims"> fundraised off his remarks</a>.</p>
<p>Fellow Republican Rep. Michael Burgess rallied support for the bill by <a href="http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/06/17/texas-congressman-masturbating-fetuses-prove-need-for-abortion-ban/">citing masturbating fetuses</a>. But perhaps the biggest steps Republicans took in dismantling <em>Roe v. Wade</em> <a href="http://www.guttmacher.org/media/inthenews/2013/07/08/">occurred on the state level</a>, where GOP-controlled state legislatures&nbsp;passed a&nbsp;range of&nbsp;<a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/perry-sign-sweeping-abortion-restrictions">extreme</a>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.toledoblade.com/Politics/2013/07/08/Both-sides-of-debate-find-Ohio-abortion-law-decision-to-be-historic.html">anti</a>-<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/08/wisconsin-abortion-law_n_3563743.html">choice</a> <a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/07/30/3068013/mccrory-signs-nc-abortion-bill.html">bills</a>.</p>
<p><strong>4. </strong> <strong>Preserving Anti-Gay Views</strong></p>
<p><em>For the GOP to appeal to younger voters, we do not have to agree on every issue, but we do need to make sure young people do not see the Party as totally intolerant of alternative points of view. Already, there is a generational difference within the conservative movement about issues involving the treatment and the rights of gays &mdash; and for many younger voters, these issues are a gateway into whether the Party is a place they want to be. </em></p>
<p>Even the GOP had to couch its call to be nicer to gay people as a political maneuver to making inroads with the youth vote, which helped&nbsp;<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/30/youth-vote-obama-reelection_n_2219086.html">secure President Obama&rsquo;s re-election</a> and is <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/the-81-how-young-adults-are-reshaping-the-m">strongly in favor of LGBT equality</a>. But the ties between the GOP and the <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/the-81-how-young-adults-are-reshaping-the-m">anti-gay Religious Right</a> remain rock solid, and many GOP leaders and potential presidential candidates addressed this year&rsquo;s Values Voter Summit, where the event&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/whos-who-values-voter-summit-2013">anti-gay sponsors and speakers</a> repeatedly&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/brown-gay-marriage-deconstructs-very-nature-what-it-means-be-human-being">denounced</a>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/parker-gay-people-and-enemies-god-should-keep-it-private">gay</a> <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rios-fabulous-ex-gays-want-tell-their-stories">rights</a>.</p>
<p>Republican elected officials&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rick-perry-urges-boy-scouts-oppose-gay-pop-culture-sam-houston-resisted-slavery">delivered</a>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/perry-claims-boy-scouts-will-answer-god-allowing-gay-members-gohmert-warns-pedophilia">stinging</a> <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rep-palazzo-if-boy-scouts-dont-maintain-anti-gay-policy-then-what-do-we-stand-country">attacks</a> against the Boy Scouts of America for ending its ban on gay members and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/louie-gohmert-mocks-supreme-court-justices-and-gay-marriage-supporters-believing-evolution">also</a>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/huelskamp-doma-ruling-attack-jesus-christ-justices-couldnt-pass-law-school">laced</a> <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/26/michele-bachmann-doma_n_3504640.html">into</a> the Supreme Court for overturning part of the Defense of Marriage Act, a law <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/2013/01/house-gop-leaders-defend-doma/">defended in court</a> by the House GOP. Republican leaders like Sen. Ted Cruz&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/ted-cruz-warns-gay-marriage-will-lead-hate-speech-laws-america-brink-collapse">ardently</a> <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/ted-cruz-pray-stop-assault-marriage">criticized</a> marriage equality at Religious Right events, and even &ldquo;libertarian&rdquo; Republicans like Sen. Rand Paul denounced gay marriage, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/06/27/rand-paul-invokes-bestiality-while-discussing-gay-marriage-walks-it-back/">linking it to non-human marriage</a>.</p>
<p><strong>5. </strong> <strong>The Shrinking Party</strong></p>
<p><em>We have become expert in how to provide ideological reinforcement to like-minded people, but devastatingly we have lost the ability to be persuasive with, or welcoming to, those who do not agree with us on every issue. </em></p>
<p>In case you needed more evidence that Republican politicians take cues from the <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/politics-elections/323965-poll-shutdown-over-obamacare-unpopular-except-with-tea-party"> GOP&rsquo;s ultraconservative base</a>, look no further than the government shutdown, where the congressional GOP leadership allowed the Tea Party &ldquo;suicide caucus&rdquo; to lead an&nbsp;<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/10/04/republicans-are-losing-the-shutdown-blame-game/">enormously unpopular</a> and <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/16/news/economy/shutdown-economic-impact/">economically harmful</a> government shutdown.</p>
<p>Republicans ended up getting nothing from the shutdown, but Rep. Marlin Stutzman <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/03/marlin-stutzman-government-shutdown_n_4034123.html">did illuminate the GOP&rsquo;s thinking</a>: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this. And I don&rsquo;t know what that even is.&rdquo;</p>
<p>While we keep hearing talk of Republicans trying to seem more inclusive and &ldquo;fighting back&rdquo; against the Tea Party, it isn&rsquo;t clear that the party is actually presenting any real challenge to Tea Party-aligned politicians. In fact, it seems that the GOP is actively embracing Tea Party&rsquo;s extremist policies, fervent rhetoric and ideological purity tests.</p>
Brian TashmanC4John BoehnerLouie Gohmert Marlin StutzmanMichael BurgessRand PaulSteve King Ted CruzTrent Franks Fighting the Right45287Mon, 30 Dec 2013 15:40:20 -0400John BoehnerReligious Right Activists Laud Congressman's Campaign Against Gay Republicanshttp://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/religious-right-activists-laud-congressmans-campaign-against-gay-republicans
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="390" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_images/elephant_A.jpg?1330022105" />
<p>Anti-gay leaders are cheering on Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA) in his <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/gay-republican-candidates-100686.html">effort</a> to block funding and support for two openly gay Republican congressional candidates. Americans For Truth About Homosexuality&rsquo;s Peter LaBarbera <a href="http://www.onenewsnow.com/politics-govt/2013/12/06/pro-family-advocate-warns-gop-about-homosexual-candidates#.UqX6lPRDubM">praised</a> Forbes for trying to preserve the GOP&rsquo;s hard line against gay equality:</p>
<blockquote>
"The Republican party platform is opposed for the most part to homosexual activism, especially gay so-called marriage," says LaBarbera. "So Forbes understands that the Republican Party should not be in the business of promoting candidates that are going to promote sexual immorality."<br />
<br />
LaBarbera says he is disappointed that many other prominent Republicans don't have a problem with "gay" GOP candidates.<br />
<br />
"It's disappointing to see House Speaker Boehner and other prominent Republicans backing openly homosexual candidates because these candidates are not going to serve the interest of the Republican Party if the party still claims to be pro-family," the family advocate tells OneNewsNow.</blockquote>
<p>Phil Burress of Citizens for Community Values, meanwhile, <a href="http://www.onenewsnow.com/politics-govt/2013/12/09/pro-family-activist-what-are-gops-non-negotiable-issues#.UqX6lPRDubM">criticized</a> House Speaker John Boehner for <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/boehner-says-i-do-to-gay-candidates-but-house-democrats-push">distancing himself</a> from Forbes&rsquo; initiative.</p>
<p>In fact, Burress thinks &ldquo;it is time for Boehner to be replaced as speaker&rdquo; for caving to &ldquo;self-proclaimed homosexuals&rdquo; and &ldquo;the homosexual agenda.&rdquo;</p>
<blockquote>
"Sometimes I think he's been in Washington too long," Phil Burress, chairman of the Ohio-based Citizens for Community Values Action Political Action Committee, says of House Speaker John Boehner.<br />
<br />
&hellip;<br />
<br />
"If you're going to elect people who are self-proclaimed homosexuals, then you're totally ignoring what the Republican Party stands for in its national platform, marriage between one man and one woman," Burress tells OneNewsNow.<br />
<br />
Burress observes he has never seen a homosexual in the Republican Party "who does not promote the homosexual agenda," which he says includes same-sex marriage and abortion.<br />
<br />
One problem plaguing the GOP is the so-called big tent approach.<br />
<br />
"The Democrats have two non-negotiable issues, same-sex marriage and abortion rights," Burress claims. "The Republican Party never talks about their non-negotiable issues because I don't think they have any."<br />
<br />
Burress also says it is time for Boehner to be replaced as speaker.</blockquote>
<p>UPDATE: Family Research Council president Tony Perkins also <a href="http://www.frc.org/washingtonupdate/gop-suffers-from-feud-poisoning">favors</a> Forbes&rsquo; push against gay candidates:</p>
<blockquote>
While Forbes has been blasted for his comments, he knows -- as well as we do -- that this debate is about a lot more than someone's sexual preference. While we reject the false dichotomy of private and public morality, I -- like most Americans -- would rather not know about a person's bedroom habits. That's not the issue for Rep. Forbes. What he cares about --and what the GOP should too -- is whether these candidates will abide by the party's platform. When Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was asked if his party could support an openly homosexual candidate, he replied, "I do." But the real question isn't whether the GOP would support an openly homosexual candidate, but whether it would support an openly homosexual activist who has sought to redefine marriage and undermine religious freedom. At the end of the day, conservatives and homosexual activists cannot coexist in a movement predicated on virtues that pre-date positive law. If there is a litmus test, it should be on ideology.<br />
<br />
Instead, the NRCC and Republican Establishment are so desperate to beat the opposition that they'll sacrifice core principles to try. And here's the irony: that weak-kneed approach is what turns voters off. "Our decisions on the Republican nominees we support will not be based on race, gender, or sexual orientation," said Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), chair of the NRCC, "but will be based on the strength of their candidacy and their ability to defeat Democrats." Translation: the GOP will throw its support behind any candidate they believe can win, even it means throwing the party's stated principles overboard.</blockquote>
Brian TashmanAnti-GayC4John BoehnerOneNewsNow Peter LaBarbera Phil Burress Randy ForbesAmericans for Truth about HomosexualityCitizens for Community Values Fighting the Right45118Mon, 09 Dec 2013 13:35:59 -0400John BoehnerReligious Right Leaders Defend Russia's Anti-Gay Lawhttp://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/religious-right-leaders-defend-russia-s-anti-gay-law
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="390" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_images/cwa_a.jpg?1350419990" />
<p>As Miranda <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/anti-gay-groups-shunned-mark-kirk-get-last-minute-help-speaker-boehner">reported</a> earlier, House Speaker John Boehner&rsquo;s office stepped in to provide space to the anti-gay Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society for its symposium on what Americans should learn from other countries when it comes to &ldquo;family policy.&rdquo; Sen. Mark Kirk, who had originally sponsored the group for a room, withdrew his support last night saying he doesn&rsquo;t affiliate with groups that discriminate.</p>
<p>The Howard Center&rsquo;s Allan Carlson, who described himself as a historian by training, saw fascism at work: &ldquo;The parallel I see here is what happened in Italy, Germany, other lands in the 1920s and 1930s as fascism began to impose its fear-driven grip on debate, on conversation, and on policy-making.&rdquo;</p>
<p>[<strong>UPDATE:</strong> Concerned Women of America has <a href="http://www.cwfa.org/content.asp?id=22729">posted videos </a>of the event]</p>
<p align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.pfaw.org//www.youtube.com/embed/BwSPJJ2w-44" width="560"></iframe></p>
<p>Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America boasted about having been a speaker at all but one of the World Congress of Families summits &ndash; annual events organized by the Howard Center and attended by conservative religious activists from around the world. Crouse acknowledged that &ldquo;things don&rsquo;t look so good&rdquo; to activists watching the advance of same-sex marriage in Europe and the U.S., and public opinion in many countries shifting to &ldquo;quote LGBT rights.&rdquo;&nbsp; But, she said that&rsquo;s not the whole story, and praised countries that have outlawed gay marriage and other groups of citizens who are &ldquo;with the help of God&rdquo; changing the world.</p>
<p>Crouse is particularly excited about what is happening among opponents of marriage equality in France, which she portrays as a &ldquo;David v. Goliath&rdquo; battle of plucky pro-family activists fighting the French government and media. She mentioned activists in Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, and Nigeria. She encouraged the small number of attendees to &ldquo;take heart&rdquo; and count on the power of truth and faithfulness.</p>
<p>Austin Ruse, the <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/austin-ruse">enthusiastically anti-gay</a> head of the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute, devoted much of his remarks to supporting Russia&rsquo;s new anti-free-speech and anti-gay propaganda law.&nbsp; He read from a statement of support from &ldquo;pro-family groups&rdquo; defending Russia&rsquo;s new law. The letter claims that &ldquo;the Russian law protects the innocence of children and the basic rights of their parents recognized in the international legislation and treaties.&rdquo;&nbsp; More from the letter:</p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;">With its new law Russia is protecting genuine and universally recognized human rights against artificial and fabricated &ldquo;values&rdquo; aggressively imposed in many modern societies&hellip;.We thus call for respect of the sovereignty of the Russian people and we invite all organizations and people who feel responsible for the protection of the innocence of children and their rights, the natural family and parental rights to stand up for Russia, as well as for Ukraine and Moldova suffering the same pressure due to similar laws.</p>
<p>Ruse, who has been spending time in Russia to prepare for the World Congress of Families 2014 summit, being held in Moscow, said western LGBT rights advocates were guilty of overheated rhetoric and &ldquo;propaganda&rdquo; about the status of gays in Russia. He saw gays everywhere in Moscow! They can enjoy themselves &ldquo;hassle-free&rdquo; at clubs.&nbsp; Russians, he said, accept that homosexuality exists, but they believe the political movement to celebrate and regularize it is harmful to children.</p>
<p>Speakers actually seemed envious of Russia in some ways.&nbsp; Ruse said that with the resurgence of the Russian Orthodox Church, &ldquo;Christians over there are truly dominant.&rdquo; In the U.S., though, there is &ldquo;an increasingly hostile atmosphere toward people with traditional values&rdquo; and a &ldquo;vicious totalitarianism that is loose in the land.&rdquo; And &ldquo;there&rsquo;s more trouble coming&rdquo; with the Employment Non Discrimination Act. &nbsp;Crouse said American gay-rights activists are &ldquo;turning into thugs who are destroying freedom of speech, destroying religious liberty.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s very &ldquo;refreshing,&rdquo; she said, to see that&rsquo;s not the case in other countries.</p>
<p>Ruse acknowledged that anti-gay violence and thuggery is a problem in Russia. He denounced such violence and said he has urged Russian officials to do more to stop it. But when he was asked whether the conversation about the anti-gay propaganda law and protecting children from gay people might encourage such violence, he said anti-gay violence in Russia has been going on for a long time and didn&rsquo;t think the new law was to blame. And he said blaming religious conservatives for creating a climate of hate is a tactic of gay-rights groups, a &ldquo;maneuver to silence people.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Carlson said he cuts Russia a lot of slack because the country is &ldquo;trying to put decent moral society back together&rdquo; after both Communism and some of the &ldquo;bad things&rdquo; &ndash; like a &ldquo;libertine approach to sexuality&rdquo; &ndash; that poured into Russia from the west after the fall of Communism.</p>
Peter MontgomeryAllan CarlsonAnti-GayAustin RuseC4Equality For AllHoward Center for Family Religion and Society Janice Crouse John BoehnerLGBT equalityRussiaWorld Congress of Families C-FAMCatholic Family and Human Rights InstituteConcerned Women for AmericaFighting the Right44913Fri, 15 Nov 2013 17:52:30 -0400John BoehnerAnti-Gay Groups Shunned By Mark Kirk Get Last-Minute Help From Speaker Boehnerhttp://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/anti-gay-groups-shunned-mark-kirk-get-last-minute-help-speaker-boehner
<p>A Capitol Hill event featuring <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/globalizing-homophobia-part-4-world-congress-families-and-russias-christian-saviors"> groups that push anti-gay laws abroad</a>, which was scheduled to take place in a Senate office building today, developed a layer of unexpected intrigue last night when the event&rsquo;s organizers sent out an email announcing that the meeting would be moved to a House building after the unnamed &ldquo;senator who was sponsoring our room&rdquo; canceled the room &ldquo;due to media pressure.&rdquo;</p>
<p>It turned out that the senator in question was Illinois&rsquo; Mark Kirk (home-state senator of the event&rsquo;s organizer the World Congress of Families), and that the &ldquo;media pressure&rdquo; was Buzzfeed&rsquo;s Lester Feder simply <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/lesterfeder/senator-kirk-pulls-senate-meeting-room-for-group-supportive">calling up his office to ask about it.</a> Kirk&rsquo;s office immediately dropped the event and announce that &ldquo;Sen. Kirk doesn&rsquo;t affiliate with groups that discriminate.&rdquo;</p>
<p>WCF <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/lesterfeder/senator-kirk-pulls-senate-meeting-room-for-group-supportive">responded</a> by announcing that &ldquo;obviously Senator Kirk doesn&rsquo;t care about families and children and freedom and has chosen to side with the policies of decline, death and disease promoted by the Sexual Radicals.&rdquo;</p>
<p>To the rescue came none other than Speaker Boehner, whom World Congress of Families president Allan Carlson thanked for providing the group with its new Capitol Hill digs. Boehner&rsquo;s spokesman nevertheless distanced his boss from the group in a statement to Feder: &ldquo;This administrative task obviously does not imply endorsement of any particular point of view.&rdquo;</p>
<p>All of this drama then became a central focus of the event, which was <a href="http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/7722973168.html">billed as a discussion</a> on what the U.S. can learn from &ldquo;family policy lessons from other lands.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Carlson kicked off the event by announcing, &ldquo;A great fear seems to be descending on what was once called the world&rsquo;s greatest deliberative body&rdquo; and saying that Kirk&rsquo;s pulling the plug on the event&rsquo;s room reminded him of the early days of fascism in Europe.</p>
<p>[<strong>UPDATE:</strong> Concerned Women of America has <a href="http://www.cwfa.org/content.asp?id=22729">posted videos </a>of the event]</p>
<p align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.pfaw.org//www.youtube.com/embed/BwSPJJ2w-44" width="560"></iframe></p>
<p>Another speaker, Concerned Women for America&rsquo;s Janice Shaw Crouse, who is also on WCF&rsquo;s <a href="http://www.worldcongress.org/people/board-directors">board of directors</a>, blamed the change of plans on &ldquo;a group of radicals&rdquo; &ndash; an odd accusation since there had been no organized effort to prevent the event from taking place.</p>
<p>Finally, Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute&rsquo;s Austin Ruse declared that Sen. Kirk&rsquo;s action made him less friendly to free speech than Russia &ndash; whose <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/russian-newspaper-may-face-gay-propaganda-case-132826597.html">law criminalizing pro-gay-rights speech</a> has the <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/globalizing-homophobia-part-1-how-american-right-came-embrace-russia-s-anti-gay-crackdown"> vocal support of C-FAM and WCF </a> .</p>
<p>UPDATE: Peter has a post on the summit speakers' <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/religious-right-leaders-defend-russia-s-anti-gay-law">defense of Russia's anti-gay laws</a>.</p>
Miranda BlueAllan CarlsonAustin RuseC4Equality For AllJanice Crouse John BoehnerWorld Congress of Families Catholic Family and Human Rights InstituteConcerned Women for America44908Fri, 15 Nov 2013 14:36:01 -0400John BoehnerRight Wing Round-Up - 11/14/13http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/right-wing-round-111413
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="390" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_rww/roundup_a.jpg?1383228480" />
<ul> <li> <a href="http://www.pfaw.org/press-releases/2013/11/pfaw-boehner-stands-extremists-immigration">PFAW</a>:
Boehner Stands With Extremists on Immigration.</li> <p> <li> <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/177018/grand-
old-tea-party?page=full#">Rick Perlstein @ The Nation</a>: The Grand Old Tea Party.</li> <p> <li> <a
href="http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2013/11/congrats-rep-jo-jordanyou-can-add-tony-homosexuality-leads-to-eternal-damnation-
perkins-to-your-fan-list.html">Jeremy Hooper</a>: Congrats, Rep. Jo Jordan&mdash;you can add Tony 'homosexuality leads to eternal
damnation' Perkins to your fan list.</li> <p> <li> <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/14/rep-gohmert-
upset-obamas-israel-policy-not-based-on-biblical-prophecies/">Travis Gettys @ Raw Story</a>: Rep. Gohmert upset Obama&rsquo;s Israel
policy not based on Biblical prophecies.</li> <p> <li> <a
href="http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2013/11/14/2942391/house-speaker-john-boehner-lgbt-nondiscrimination-protections-unnecessary/">Zack
Ford @ Think Progress</a>: House Speaker John Boehner: LGBT Employment Protections Are &lsquo;Unnecessary.&rsquo;</li> <p> <li>
<a href="http://www.mediaite.com/online/ted-cruz-when-you-attack-me-youre-attacking-the-american-people/">Matt Wilstein @ Mediaite</a>:
Ted Cruz: When You Attack Me, You&rsquo;re Attacking the &lsquo;American People.&rsquo;</li></ul>
Kyle MantylaJohn BoehnerLouie Gohmert Round-UpTed Cruz44900Thu, 14 Nov 2013 18:35:07 -0400John BoehnerReligious Right Will Cheer Tea Party Extremism at Values Voter Summithttp://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/religious-right-will-cheer-tea-party-extremism-values-voter-summit
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="390" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_images/tea_party_5_a.jpg?1355957007" />
<p>It&rsquo;s quite a week in Washington, D.C.&nbsp; House Speaker John Boehner kicked off the week by <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/boehner-u-s-will-default-if-obama-doesn-t-cave-on-the-debt-limit" target="_blank">threatening to destroy the global economy</a> if President Obama does not give in to Tea Party demands. The shutdown of the federal government, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/us/a-federal-budget-crisis-months-in-the-planning.html" target="_blank">planned and engineered by anti-government extremists in Congress and their billionaire backers</a>, continues. And the Supreme Court <a href="http://www.pfaw.org/press-releases/2013/10/pfaw-memo-key-cases-supreme-courts-new-term" target="_blank">started a term</a> in which conservatives on the Court could further gut campaign finance laws, restrict women&rsquo;s access to abortion, undermine fair housing and educational opportunity, and weaken separation of church and state.</p>
<p>In other words, it&rsquo;s the <em>perfect</em> week for the Values Voter Summit, the annual event at which thousands of Religious Right activists have a chance to rub shoulders with the movement&rsquo;s leaders and the Republican politicians who court them.&nbsp; The summit&rsquo;s lead sponsor, the Family Research Council, has asked its supporters to pray, &ldquo;<em>May God cause this years [sic] VVS to have a profound impact in informing Christian and conservative leaders, and in shaping the 2014 elections for righteousness!&rdquo;</em></p>
<p>People For the American Way has <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/civil-rights-groups-urge-gop-leaders-skip-values-voter-summit" target="_blank">joined</a> the Southern Poverty Law Center, Faithful America, GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign, the NAACP and the National Council of La Raza in urging public officials not to participate in the festival of extremism, but experience indicates that the chance to preen before these super-motivated right-wing activists is impossible for many Republican politicos to pass up.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.valuesvotersummit.org/schedule" target="_blank">schedule</a> gives you a pretty good sense of what the Values Voter Summit will be like: the first four speakers are senators from the Tea Party wing of the GOP: Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz.&nbsp; Of course, that&rsquo;s after the pre-event breakfast, &ldquo;Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition,&rdquo; a panel on gun rights.&nbsp; (No, you are not reading The Onion.) Current and former Republican House members scheduled to speak on Friday are all Tea Partiers: Allen West, Jim Bridenstine (Okla.), Louie Gohmert (Texas), Jim Jordan (Ohio), and Steve Scalise (La.)</p>
<p>The Values Voter Summit makes clear how completely the Religious Right&rsquo;s leaders are working to merge their activists&rsquo; anti-abortion and anti-gay zeal with the anti-government extremism of the Tea Party. Actually, it goes beyond that. Movement leaders are trying to give the Tea Party&rsquo;s agenda a biblical foundation. A couple of weeks ago, for example, Family Research Council spokesman Ken Blackwell said that there is <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/frc-nothing-more-christian-massive-food-stamp-cut" target="_blank">&ldquo;nothing more Christian&rdquo;</a> than throwing millions of low-income families off food stamps. The Tea Party &ndash; Religious Right convergence is also evident on a panel called &ldquo;Where do we go from here: Challenging Tyranny,&rdquo; whose speakers include FRC&rsquo;s Ken Blackwell and Dean Clancy of the Koch-funded FreedomWorks.</p>
<p>The Family Research Council has been leading cheers for Ted Cruz, the shutdown Svengali.&nbsp; Cruz appeared on Perkins&rsquo; radio show last week for a fawning interview in which Cruz blamed President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for the shutdown and accused Democratic leaders of holding veterans hostage.&nbsp; For his part, Perkins called Obamacare&nbsp;a &ldquo;government takeover of health care&rdquo; and a &ldquo;lurch toward socialism&rdquo; and said there is nothing more important than stopping it. Perkins even portrayed the government shutdown as a reason to attend VVS, because there won&rsquo;t be as much traffic on the streets.</p>
<p>Perkins recently sent out a fundraising letter in which he called on Congress to use both the government funding bill and the looming debt limit deadline to force through limits on the Obama administration&rsquo;s requirement that insurance plans cover contraception. He is also <a href="http://www.frc.org/washingtonupdate/drawing-default-lines">promoting</a> the dangerous idea being floated by Tea Party Republicans that failure to increase the debt ceiling is no big problem.</p>
<p>Of course, if you&rsquo;re an old-school Religious Right activist who is really motivated by hostility to legal equality for LGBT people, the Values Voter Summit will have <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/09/23/here-are-the-anti-lgbt-media-figures-speaking-a/196040" target="_blank">plenty of anti-gayness</a> for you.&nbsp;&nbsp; A panel on marriage features Brian Brown, who traveled to <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/globalizing-homophobia-part-2-today-whole-world-looking-russia" target="_blank">Russia</a> earlier this year to rally support for a law that bans the adoption of Russian children by parents who live in countries that recognize legal equality for LGBT people. Several speakers will present marriage equality as a dire threat to religious liberty. Dr. Ben Carson, who became a Tea Party folk hero for lecturing President Obama about a flat tax during a prayer breakfast last year, said last week that supporters of LGBT equality want to <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/07/tea-party-hero-ben-carson-marriage-equality-jeopardizes-everything-else-in-the-bible/" target="_blank">&ldquo;get rid of&rdquo; everything in the Bible.</a></p>
<p>In fact, multiple panels on Saturday are built around the notion that religious liberty is in extreme peril in the U.S., with speakers from the Heritage Foundation, the Becket Fund, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, among others.</p>
<p>A concentrated dose of right-wing extremism may come on Friday night, where the line-up includes far-right Virginia Attorney General <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/ken-cuccinelli" target="_blank">Ken Cuccinelli</a>, whose bid to revive the state&rsquo;s unconstitutional sodomy law was just rejected by the Supreme Court; his even fringier running mate <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/ew-jackson" target="_blank">E.W. Jackson</a>; former presidential candidate and radio host Mike Huckabee; and former Sen. <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/jim-demint">Jim DeMin</a>t, the Tea Party godfather who left the Senate to take charge of the Heritage Foundation, whose massive budget he is using to bully Republicans into submission to the wishes of the Tea Party.</p>
<p>But even that line-up may be topped by &ldquo;Standing Up to the Assaults on our Faith,&rdquo; a panel that includes&nbsp; birther extraordinaire <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/joseph-farah" target="_blank">Joseph Farah</a>; conspiracy theorist <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/jerome-corsi" target="_blank">Jerome Corsi</a>, who <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/corsi-continues-obama-gay-crusade">insists</a> that Obama is gay; dominionist anti-choice activist and radio host <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/janet-porter-n%C3%A9e-folger?page=1" target="_blank">Janet Porter</a>, author of <em>The Criminalization of Christianity</em>; and self-described <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/governor-and-christocrat-match-made-texas" target="_blank">&ldquo;Christocrat&rdquo;</a> <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/rick-scarborough" target="_blank">Rick Scarborough</a>, who says AIDS is God&rsquo;s punishment. Whew! The Obama hatred and reality-denial will be knee-deep in that one.</p>
<p>The increasingly unhinged <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/glenn-beck-0" target="_blank">Glenn Beck</a> gets an hour of Saturday afternoon presumably to peddle his <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/beck-obama-administration-will-commit-mass-killings-following-monument-closure" target="_blank">wild</a> <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/glenn-beck-considers-moving-canada-obama-administration-revolutionaries-start-scoop-people" target="_blank">conspiracy</a> <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/glenn-beck-reveals-progressive-dishwasher-cursive-handwriting-conspiracy-theories" target="_blank">theories</a>, though you never know if you&rsquo;ll get the despondent Glenn Beck, messianic Glenn Beck, or bold and blustery Glenn Beck.&nbsp; Whichever one shows up, it&rsquo;s a safe bet that the crowd will eat it up.</p>
Peter MontgomeryAllen WestAnti-GayBrian BrownE.W. JacksonJanet PorterJeromise CorsiJim BridenstineJim DeMint Jim JordanJohn BoehnerJoseph Farah Ken Blackwell Ken CuccinelliLouie Gohmert Marco RubioMike Huckabee Paul RyanRand PaulRepublican PartyRick Scarborough shutdownSteve Scalisetea partyTed CruzTony Perkins Values Voter SummitFamily Research CouncilGlenn BeckFighting the Right44496Wed, 09 Oct 2013 13:25:22 -0400John BoehnerSix Delusional GOP Shutdown Talking Pointshttp://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/six-delusional-gop-shutdown-talking-points
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="390" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_images/elephant_A.jpg?1330022105" />
<p>Now that the House GOP leadership has listened to its far-right Tea Party wing and shut down the government in a failed attempt to block the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, Republicans in Congress are trying to present themselves as American heroes.</p>
<p>They are patting themselves on the back for attempting to stop a law that they claim most voters oppose&hellip;despite the fact that voters re-elected President Obama just last November and <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/09/30/government-shutdown-blame-republicans-polls/2897197/">overwhelmingly oppose</a> the Tea Party shutdown.</p>
<p>We attempted to wade into the Tea Party&rsquo;s alternate universe to condense Right&rsquo;s six favorite talking points about the shutdown.</p>
<p><strong>Obama&rsquo;s Re-Election Had Nothing To Do With Obamacare </strong></p>
<p>Only in the delusional reality of conservative activists was Obamacare&nbsp;<a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/06/election-is-now-a-fight-over-obamacare.html">not</a>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/10/26/the-most-important-issue-of-this-election-health-reform/">an</a> <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303816504577309532091933136.html">issue</a> in the last election. Mitt Romney <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/jim-demint-s-revisionist-history-of-obamacare-20130930"> campaigned for a full repeal of the health care law </a> with the message, &ldquo;<a href="http://thehill.com/video/campaign/235499-romney-campaign-day-one-job-one-repeal-obamacare">Day one. Job one. Repeal Obamacare</a>.&rdquo; But not according to Heritage Foundation head and Romney backer Jim DeMint, who <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/09/26/former_romney_endorser_jim_demint_says_romney_denied_america_a_referendum.html?wpisrc=burger_bar"> said </a> that Romney and other Republicans lost because they weren&rsquo;t conservative enough and &ldquo;because of Romney and Romneycare, we did not litigate the Obamacare issue.&rdquo; Sen. Rand Paul <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rand-paul-says-there-hasn-t-been-a-big-debate-about-obamacare-video">maintained</a> that there hasn&rsquo;t been a &ldquo;big debate on Obamacare&rdquo; since 2010, while Fox News anchor Steve Doocy defended repeal efforts by making the dumbfounding <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/01/fox-news-kilmeade-slams-gop-for-shutdown-8-million-more-people-voted-for-obamacare/">claim</a> that &ldquo;the November election last time was not about Obamacare.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Obamacare Isn&rsquo;t A Law!</strong></p>
<p>Congressional Republicans have tried to avoid admitting that Obamacare is even a law, with several GOP lawmakers in the&nbsp;<a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/325277-gop-lawmakers-bridle-at-calling-obamacare-the-law">Senate</a> and the<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/30/republicans-obamacare-law_n_4018169.html">House</a> &mdash; <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09/26/house-republicans-open-two-front-war-on-obamacare/">including Speaker Boehner</a> &mdash; referring to the Affordable Care Act &mdash; signed into law in 2010 &mdash; as only a &ldquo;bill.&rdquo; The right-wing group FreedomWorks <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/325277-gop-lawmakers-bridle-at-calling-obamacare-the-law">said</a> that it is encouraging Republicans to label the law as a &ldquo;bill&rdquo; in order to undermine it by &ldquo;emphasiz[ing] that the law remains quasi illegitimate, because it has never accepted by one of the two major parties.&rdquo; It should go without saying that just because one party doesn&rsquo;t like a law, doesn&rsquo;t mean that it is not a law.</p>
<p><strong>Obamacare Wrong Because People Will Like It</strong></p>
<p>The GOP is insistent that Congress must repeal Obamacare before people begin enjoying its benefits. Sen. Ted Cruz <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/cruz-obamacare-americans-unite/2013/08/01/id/518338">warned</a> that &ldquo;it is likely Obamacare will become a permanent feature of our economy&rdquo; once people become &ldquo;addicted to the subsidies, addicted to the sugar.&rdquo; Rep. Michele Bachmann similarly <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bachmann-obama-peddling-crack-cocaine-dependency">asserted</a> that &ldquo;it will be virtually impossible for us to pull these benefits back from the people&rdquo; after &ldquo;they enroll millions of more&rdquo; people into health insurance plans and get them &ldquo;addicted to the crack cocaine of dependency.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Democrats Need To Compromise On Derailing Obamacare</strong></p>
<p>Republicans and several media outlets have tried to create a false equivalency between GOP hostage-taking and Democratic officials who simply want to keep the government running. Cruz <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/09/29/cruz_what_have_the_democrats_compromised_on_nothing_zero.html">said</a> his anti-Obamacare strategy represents &ldquo;the essence of a compromise&rdquo; and asked, &ldquo;what have the Democrats compromised on? Nothing. Zero.&rdquo; Rep. Dana Rohrabacher also <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2013/9/30/headlines">slammed</a> Democrats for having &ldquo;refused to even consider the compromise that [Republicans] have offered.&rdquo; Of course, these notions of &ldquo;compromise&rdquo; are based on the absurd premise that simply funding the government is itself a <em>concession </em>on the part of Republicans, and Democrats now should return the favor by agreeing to their objective of undermining the health care reform law.</p>
<p><strong>Obamacare Opponents Emulating Civil Rights Legends</strong></p>
<p>Florida freshman <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/us/politics/conservatives-take-turns-standing-up-to-boehner.html?pagewanted=all">Ted Yoho</a> said that Republicans who shut down the government over the health care law are <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/us/politics/conservatives-take-turns-standing-up-to-boehner.html?smid=fb-share&_r=2&">just like</a> Civil Rights Movement activists Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., and Polish Solidarity founder Lech Walesa: &ldquo;It only takes one with passion &mdash; look at Rosa Parks, Lech Walesa, Martin Luther King,&rdquo; Yoho said. &ldquo;People with passion that speak up, they&rsquo;ll have people follow them because they believe the same way, and smart leadership listens to that.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>House Republicans Like 9/11 Heroes</strong></p>
<p>Texas Republican <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/28/john-culberson-911-lets-roll_n_4009494.html">John Culberson</a> tried to rally the House GOP by comparing their struggle to the passengers on United Airlines Flight 93, who fought the terrorists who hijacked their plane: &ldquo;I said, you know like 9/11, &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s roll!&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
Brian TashmanC4Dana Rohrabacherhealth care reformJim DeMint John BoehnerMichele BachmannRand PaulTed CruzFighting the Right44406Tue, 01 Oct 2013 12:00:06 -0400John BoehnerRight Wing Leftovers - 1/24/13http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/right-wing-leftovers-12413
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The Christian conservative magazine <a href="http://www.worldmag.com/2013/01/aborting_the_future"><em>WORLD</em></a> notes that while abortion is illegal in South Korea, abortion rates there are &ldquo;double the U.S. rate.&rdquo; As we&rsquo;ve said before, abortion rates tend to be <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57362079-10391704/abortion-more-common-where-its-illegal-where-are-rates-highest/">higher</a> in countries where it is criminalized.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
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Tomorrow, Rick Santorum, Rand Paul and Tony Perkins will speak at the March for Life [<a href="http://www.marchforlife.org/sites/default/files/downloads/speakerlist1-17-13.pdf">PDF</a>], while Speaker John Boehner will send in a video message.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
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New Mexico Republicans want to prosecute rape survivors who terminate the pregnancy with a felony charge of &ldquo;<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/24/new-mexico-abortion-bill_n_2541894.html?utm_hp_ref=tw">tampering with evidence</a>.&rdquo;&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
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Concerned Women for America <a href="http://www.cwfa.org/content.asp?id=21851">claims</a> that feminism has left women &ldquo;at the mercy of sexually liberated men.&rdquo;&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
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A very delusional Joseph Farah <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/caesar-obamas-priorities/">maintains</a> that Obama &ldquo;got re-elected because there was virtually no opposition.&rdquo;&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
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If you ever wanted to learn how to literally wrestle a demon and evade their &ldquo;fiery darts,&rdquo; <a href="http://www.charismamag.com/blogs/the-plumb-line/16606-when-demon-inspired-believers-lay-hands-on-you">here&rsquo;s your chance</a>.</li>
</ul>
Brian TashmanJohn BoehnerJoseph Farah LeftoversRand PaulRick Santorum Tony Perkins WorldNetDaily Concerned Women for America42036Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:50:53 -0400John BoehnerGaffney Says McCain and Boehner are 'Parroting the Muslim Brotherhood Line' by Condemning Bachmann's Witch Hunthttp://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/gaffney-mccain-boehner-parroting-muslim-brotherhood-line-bachmann
<p>Cliff Kincaid of America&rsquo;s Survival, who recently led the<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/craziest-right-wing-conference-yet"> &ldquo;Lenin and Sharia&rdquo; conference</a> on the <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/kincaid-islam-communism-person-obama">supposed links between Communism and radical Islamists</a>, today<a href="http://www.securefreedomradio.org/2012/08/16/who-can-we-trust/"> joined</a> Frank Gaffney on <em>Secure Freedom Radio</em> to once again defend Michele Bachmann&rsquo;s anti-Muslim witch hunt. But before they could get to that, the two attacked conservative activist Grover Norquist, whom Gaffney <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/01/frank-gaffney-grover-norquist-muslim-brotherhood_n_1699604.html">has</a> <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/02/15/144098/frank-gaffney-banned-from-cpac/">consistently</a> <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2012/05/17/frank_gaffney_banned_from_another_conservative_d_c_meeting.html">demonized</a> as a <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/frank-gaffney-claims-grover-norquist-helping-muslim-brotherhood-infiltrate-conservative-move">Muslim Brotherhood agent</a>. Gaffney said that his <a href="http://muslimbrotherhoodinamerica.com/">ten part &ldquo;Muslim Brotherhood in America&rdquo; course</a> proves that Norquist and his Brotherhood allies are copying the &ldquo;kind of subversive, clandestine operations that the Communists ran in their heyday in this country&rdquo;:</p>
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<blockquote> <strong>Gaffney</strong>: Cliff Kincaid, one of the things that jumps out at you as you look at this material in the course and Grover&rsquo;s friends in the Islamist Brotherhood infrastructure in the United States is how closely it seems to track, almost maps perfectly really, to the kind of subversive, clandestine operations that the Communists ran in their heyday in this country. You&rsquo;ve developed a tremendous expertise on that subject and I wonder what particularly in your own program about Lenin and Sharia, did you find much evidence of the connection being more than coincidental there?<br />
<br />
<strong>Kincaid</strong>: We did, Frank. This is where Grover&rsquo;s conduct leaves me almost speechless. I mean here&rsquo;s a guy who did recognize during the Reagan years the Communist threat and who now seemingly can&rsquo;t see that we&rsquo;re up against a global Islamic terrorist threat operating through front groups. That&rsquo;s exactly what the Communists did. </blockquote>
<p>Later, Gaffney claimed that John McCain and John Boehner, who along with many other Republicans <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/19/news/la-pn-boehner-stands-by-huma-abedin-calls-bachmanns-accusations-dangerous-20120719">denounced Bachmann&rsquo;s witch hunt</a>, were &ldquo;sort of parroting the Muslim Brotherhood line&rdquo; by defending Huma Abedin from Bachmann&rsquo;s attacks. Kincaid recommended the House restore the Internal Security Committee, which was originally called the House Un-American Activities Committee, and said that neither Abedin nor President Obama could pass a background check:</p>
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<blockquote> <strong>Gaffney</strong>: They&rsquo;re not simply imitating what the Communists did, the Communists trained them in how to run what the Brotherhood calls civilization jihad. As you know this is not necessarily terrorism, at least at the moment it&rsquo;s a pre-violent form of creating the conditions of the battlefield that will enable the violent kind of jihad ultimately to be very successful. Cliff, one other thing that I&rsquo;m struck by that seems to be an important parallel and it brings us back to the Grover Norquist element here; we&rsquo;ve also been hearing of course from John McCain and Speaker of the House John Boehner lately, among others, sort of parroting the Muslim Brotherhood line on a number of issues, notably the revelations that the deputy chief of staff to the Secretary of State, Huma Abedin, has extensive personal as well as family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Give us a sense of how this is a throwback to the earlier revelations, among others, by J. Edgar Hoover of what the Communists have done on the other side.<br />
<br />
<strong>Kincaid</strong>: You would think that somebody like a McCain who is of course a war hero who came out of the Hanoi Hilton would understand the similarities between what the Communists have tried to do to us and now what the global Islamists are effectively doing to us. Yet we noticed, Frank, a couple years ago that he seemed to go haywire on this whole thing, after warning about the Muslim Brotherhood he suddenly shows in Washington at an event honoring Al Jazeera and then he shows up making these comments on the Senate Floor in criticism of the conservative members of the House who have raised concerns about security problems at the State Department and other agencies. <br />
<br />
This is something that requires frankly the Congress to take a harder look; I wish we could go beyond just asking the inspectors general to look at this problem. We have long at America&rsquo;s Survival advocated the return of the House and the Senate, but they can do it in the House, of the House Internal Security Committee to issue subpoenas, to bring in and require testimony from these people, to get to the bottom of it in public hearings as to the security problems in the State Department. Who gave Huma Abedin a security clearance? Does she in fact have one? We don&rsquo;t even know that. I do know that I&rsquo;ve taken a look at the standard form 86, 127 pages long that she was supposed to fill out and if she had filled it out, and let&rsquo;s face it even the President couldn&rsquo;t pass a basic background check, but if she had filled it out truthfully she wouldn&rsquo;t be in that position today.<br />
<br />
<strong>Gaffney</strong>: Amen, Cliff Kincaid, you are as always a great, great authority on these issues.</blockquote>Brian TashmanAmerica&#039;s SurvivalAnti-MuslimC4Cliff Kincaid Frank Gaffney Grover Norquist IslamJohn BoehnerJohn McCain Michele BachmannCenter for Security Policy Fighting the Right40762Thu, 16 Aug 2012 16:15:06 -0400John BoehnerNext Religious Right Prayer Event in the Capitol's Statuary Hallhttp://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/next-religious-right-prayer-event-capitol-hall
<p>Yesterday, Pastor Dan Cummins <a href="http://www.cwfa.org/content.asp?id=21140">spoke</a> to Chelsen Vicari of Concerned Women for America to publicize a <a href="http://www.comepraywithme.org/images/e7d0042fd868960b2aa36d2352c4c11d.jpg">May 8th prayer event</a>, hosted by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and endorsed by Speaker John Boehner, in the Capitol&rsquo;s Statuary Hall that Cummins said was inspired by Texas Gov. Rick Perry&rsquo;s <em>The Response</em>:</p>
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<p>CWA is sponsoring a similar event called &ldquo;<a href="http://www.cwfa.org/content.asp?id=21140">Prayer in the People&rsquo;s House</a>,&rdquo; and Cummis mentioned that <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/david-barton">David Barton</a>, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/jim-garlow">Jim Garlow</a>, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/harry-jackson">Harry Jackson</a>, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/alveda-king">Alveda King</a> and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/doug-stringer">Doug Stringer</a>, all of whom also participated in <em>The Response</em>, will be leading the prayer meeting in the Capitol:</p>
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<blockquote>
<strong>Cummins</strong>: As part of the activities for National Day of Prayer, we are inviting members of the Congress, of the House and Senate, and their staff, to participate in this prayer event in probably the most sacred hall of the Capitol, Statuary Hall.<br />
<br />
<strong>Vicari</strong>: That sounds fabulous, in conjunction to this event there is an event that our listeners can actually partake in and that&rsquo;s Prayer in the People&rsquo;s House, can you tell us about that?<br />
<br />
<strong>Cummins</strong>: While we are having this event in the Capitol, in fact, let me first tell you some of the speakers that will be participating in this event for our members of Congress. Dr. Jim Garlow of Skyline Wesleyan Church and also Renewing American Leadership will be with us, Bishop Harry Jackson from High Impact Leadership, Dr. Doug Stringer of Somebody Cares International, Dr. Alveda King from Priest for Life, and everybody knows historian David Barton.</blockquote>
<p>Barton of course is best known for his <a href="http://www.pfaw.org/rww-in-focus/barton-s-bunk-religious-right-historian-hits-the-big-time-tea-party-america">revisionist, pro-Republican writings about American history</a>, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/garlow-says-satan-behind-radical-gay-homosexual-agenda-then-demands-gays-dial-down-rhetoric">Garlow</a> and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/harry-jackson-brings-down-queen-heaven-behind-same-sex-marriage-perversion">Jackson</a> for <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/everything-you-could-want-know-about-jim-garlows-views-prop-8">their</a> <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/prop-8-engle-calls-it-end-democracy-while-garlow-warns-bestiality">staunch</a> <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/garlow-only-gingrich-can-stop-radical-homosexual-agenda-and-obama-destroying-marriage">anti</a>-<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/jackson-gay-marriage-part-satanic-plot-destroy-family">gay</a> <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/harry-jackson-same-sex-marriage-will-be-beginning-end-family-we-know-it">activism</a>, King for <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/co-opting-king">her</a> <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/why-alveda-king-perfect-glenn-becks-rally">role</a> in the <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/alveda-king-honoring-mlks-dream-her-anti-choice-activism">anti-choice movement</a>, and Stringer, who was heavily involved in putting together <em>The Response</em>, for <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rick-perry-partners-apostle-who-blames-america-september-11-attacks">blaming the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on abortion rights and homosexuality</a>.</p>
Brian TashmanAlveda King C4Chelsen VicariDan CumminsDavid Barton Doug StringerHarry Jackson Jim GarlowJohn BoehnerLouie Gohmert The ResponseThe Response Prayer RallyConcerned Women for AmericaFighting the Right39809Tue, 01 May 2012 17:00:31 -0400John Boehner